Lake Okeechobee Water Volume

By Ed Killer ed.killer@scripps.com Lake Okeechobee emptied into the St. Lucie River for 50 days. As of Thursday, the Army Corps of Engineers halted the discharge of freshwater from Florida's greatest lake into the ecologically biodiverse and sensitive St. Lucie River estuary. This most recent event poured a combined 43 billion gallons of water from the lake into the river and eventually out to sea via the tide. It's hard for us to comprehend how much volume 43 billion gallons actually is. So here are a few comparisons we can use to help understand the magnitude of the discharges in South Florida's drainage system. WATER SENT TO TIDE THROUGH ST. LUCIE RIVER: 43 billion gallons

Treasure Coast Newspapers

OLYMPIC SWIMMING POOL: 660,000 gallons Water sent to tide would fill how many pools? 65,152

2011 AP

SEMI-TANKER TRUCK: 9,000 gallons Water sent to tide would fill how many tanker trucks? 4.78 million

AP2012

HELLESPONT ALHAMBRA OIL TANKER: 133 million gallons Water sent to tide would fill how many T1 class oil tankers? 323.3

Wikipedia Commons

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, MUNICIPAL USAGE: 347 million gallons per day Water sent to tide would fulfill Miami-Dade's municipal needs for how many days? 124

AP2008

MIAMI-DADE, BROWARD, PALM BEACH AND MONROE, COMBINED MUNICIPAL USAGE: 1.9 billion gallons per day Water sent to tide would fulfill needs of four South Florida counties for how many days? 22

AP1995

PALM BEACH COUNTY, MUNICIPAL AND AGRICULTURAL USAGE: 600 million gallons per day Water sent to tide would irrigate crops in Palm Beach county for how many days? 71

AVERAGE RATE FOR MUNICIPAL WATER BILL IN FLORIDA: $.02 per gallon Water sent to tide would cost the average Florida municipal water user how much? $860 million

SHNS photo courtesy John Deere

AMAZON RIVER, OUTFLOW: 4.8 trillion gallons per day Water sent to tide would represent how much of Amazon's daily outflow into Atlantic Ocean? .09